Charlie, I take it you have never seen what doped up worms can do. They form gangs and, well, it can be pretty ugly. The lawnmower typically never even sees them coming until it is too late. And the dog - oh, it's ugly. Just plain ugly. And try getting bait for fishing - you are taking your life in your hands.......

I'm interested in the real answer as well - does the lawn go crazy?

__________________

__________________Barry & DonnaLife is short - so is the door on a '51 Flying Cloud (ouch)

At the end of January we are headed down to Tucson from Ashland, OR and taking the I-5, for the most part. We've never taken such a long trip before this. Should we 'wing it' and just stop where we find an RV park? Or is it better to have an itinerary, find parks before we leave and make reservations?
Any ideas about which places to stop along the way might be good?
Are we crazy for taking such a long trip and planning to return home after maybe ten days in Tucson? Should we stay longer?

Since you guys all have such great pictures and obviously a good grasp of the 'lay of the land', I'm hoping you can offer some helpful advice.

Hey Kathleen...

Winging it will give you more of a sense of freedom and adventure...making reservations will relieve some stress just knowing where you are going to be...we do it both ways...sometimes we make reservations when we know we have to be somewhere at a specific time, just to make sure we have accommodations... and then wing it in between those points. You can usually find an RV park that has openings but as you get further south into our part of the country it may become more difficult to get into public campgrounds because of the influx of winter visitors...it's a crap shoot sometimes, especially in more popular places...

I agree with Ahab that you may want more time in Tucson... Of course, we have all traveled far and spent less time at our destination before heading home...so you can do it... but if you have the time you could definitely stay longer in the Tucson area ... and you'd get more "bang for your miles" getting here an not feel rushed to turn around and go home...

We have not gone your direction so I can't really segguest stopping points, but I'm sure others here know of some good places...

I 'got' the whole septic system thing but was amused by the ensuing discussion. 'Manic worms',

I am beginning to think we may have to stretch our time down in Tucson, if only to put off what could be a grueling trip home.

Will poke around to see what's available on the 99 for our journey. If it looks as though they aren't filling up, we'll maybe wing it. Still, it will be good to know what will turn up as a likely stop for the night. I can't see us boondocking. If we did, there would have to be a movie which would make Robin Williams look like a very competent Donald-Trump type.

Hey friends. Forgive us! It's been months (literally) since we have updated our travel log. We always get behind in the fall and winter and catch up in the spring. But this past year we had an unexpected surprise when we got home from our holiday trip, so things have not gone as they normally do.

Very long story short: We came home after a 10 day holiday trip on 3 Jan 11 to discover a frozen pipe in our kitchen ceiling, gushing water, and 5" of water standing in our house. The whole house was a mess. The ceilings in the kitchen and dining areas were collapsing. So we had to completely pack up our home before repairs could even begin.

We parked the Bambi in the front yard of the house so we'd have access to electricity, water (after it was repaired 5 weeks into the ordeal), and sewer. And that's where we lived for the duration of the extensive repairs to our home. We finally moved back into the house on 17 April 2011 — 4 nights short of 4 months in the Bambi.

We through the worst of it now, thank goodness. The repairs are done. The insurance is settled. And we are in the last stages of unpacking our stuff and establishing a "new order"...even at that, here we are 7 months later, and we still feel like our lives are not back to "normal" (whatever that is).

For us, part of getting back to normal is camping and enjoying the Bambi again — for recreation rather than as our only viable housing option. We managed a few short trips during the repairs just to get away from it all ... and we are beginning to reclaim our routine ... which means catching up on our travelogue.

We will continue to update the website (and this thread) chronologically as quickly as we can so that we can catch up. The flood ordeal will be treated as a trip titled "Gimme Shelter" on our website when we get there afater our fall and holiday trips. (We did stay in the Bambi the entire time, after all, so it's our "forced fulltiming" episode.) That update will include all the gory details of the damage, repairs and stages of getting our space back — complete with pictures of the Bambi sitting handsomely in our front yard.

So that's what we're doing here today. This is to let you know you that our latest pathetically overdue travelogue update is posted to our website for your enjoyment and information. This was a 3-week trip we made to NM in Sept and early Oct 2010... First, the 4CUnit Heron Lake NM Rally, followed by a week in the Jemez Mts ... followed by the 2010 4CUnit Balloon Fiesta Rally. It was a great trip, and the longest trip we'd made (save for the flood thing). Below are some photos from the trip last fall. And be sure to visit our travelogue (link below) for lots more pictures and the whole story...

Sorry to hear about the hardship you guys went through. I'm glad to hear things are getting back to normal for you. For myself, and I'm sure the others who follow your travels, looking forward to your postings is worth the wait no matter the pace at which they arrive.

Thanks Tom...the further we get away from the whole thing in time the more it becomes a good story and less of a personal ordeal. By the time we get to actually writing the story for the travelogue and go through the pictures again, much of the angst and sense of disruption will have dissipated and we'll be able to tell the story more calmly ... and maybe even including a little humor in retrospect. We lived through it, and that is the important thing I guess, as is the case with all unexpected crisis in life. In the thick of it, however, it was pretty overwhelming and there was a lot of putting one foot in front of the other just to keep going.

PS: Some folks have said after all this we will never want to camp in the Bambi again. But that's not been the case. We are still in love with it and truly enjoy any time we get to spend in it. In fact, it's even more special because it really was a haven during a very hard time.

TB, your pic's were great. Sorry about your ordeal upon returning home, though... I wish we could spend more time on the road in our Bambi but the DH has a low-tolerance level, lol. We plan to spend six weeks in Tucson this winter which will test his mettle.
Well, I must go now, am looking up camp grounds in the Jemez Mountains next.

I'm glad that life is getting back to normal for you guys. We suffered two floods in the house and a third was caught by our daughter as she was leaving for work. I had a plumber install a ball valve at the water main outside at the front lawn. Now when we leave the house overnight I close the valve. If anything breaks inside the house there will be a limited amout of damage.

Hope to see you sometime this year. I think I read that no Balloon Fiesta for you this year.

Kathleen... Thanks. Glad you enjoyed the pics. When yo check out the Jemez, also look at Fenton Lake State Park, which isn't too far from where we were at hte Jemex Falls Campground. We didn't go there on this last trip, but we want to the next time. It looks nice. And then there's the Bandelier National Monument which as a campground that closed for renovations when we were there. Unfortunatley the recent Las Conchas Fire burned a good deal of the forest in the monument.

Hey Charlie... Thanks... We did the same thing as you...added a turn-off valve to the house so we can turn the water off to the house while leaving the drip irrigation on (which is on a timer) ... We turn it off when we are gone over night as well. It doesn't take long for a burst pipe or other leak to create havoc.

No, we're passing on the Balloon Fiesta this year ... been there the last two years, so thought we'd do something else this time.

Thanks, Mickie & Mary... We're far away from it now that we can look at it as "just one of those things that happens"... and we got through it relatively unscathed. The Insurance covered everything, we have our house back, and we can even find a few silver linings. Again, thank goodness for the Bambi. Not sure what we would have done without it. We also learned that if necessary we can live in 19' — 16' actually, since 3' of an Airstream's stated length is tongue!

We've posted the next trip in sequence to our travel log website... I's our first trip to Puerto Peñasco Rocky Point), Mexico with two other Airstreams. Sorry this is so late, but we are making every effort to get caught up...

It was a great trip...we were a bit nervous for this first adventure, but now we look forward to our jaunts south of the border...it's so nice to go to the ocean once in a awhile when you live in the desert!

This was Annie'e (our black cocker) last trip with us...she had been very ill for a long time and we lost her a few edays after we returned from Mexico, so the memories from this trip are dedicated to her. It made this particular entry hard to get through, but we did it...

Here are some pictures...the rest can be viewed at the website...

And stay tuned...we have VOWED to get ourselves current our trips!

Pic #1: On the road to Why, AZ, where we turn south to head to Lukeville to cross the border...that's our friend's rig in front of us...

Pic #2: Our "beach front" sites... it's actually at the ocean side of the RV park with a walkway along the beach with a short wall..then the beautiful white sand...

Pic #3: The view from our door...

Pic #4: Sunset from our site...

Pic #5: Aluminum all lined up with the neighboring hotel looming overhead...

Pic #6: Aluminum see from the beach...

Pic #7: To the beach!

Pic #8: A shrimp boat in the Sea of Cortez (it was shrimping season, lucky us!)